Camping

Last weekend some friends and I went camping out at Lake Livingston.

We weren't able to leave very early on Friday, so it was very dark by the time we got there. We got the tents set up, but both Katherine and Julie brought hammocks that they were going to sleep in, so the next order of business was to get them put up.

Upon searching the campsite, we found that there was only one set of trees with the proper distance to set up a hammock, so they decided to try it "bunk bed" style. It was difficult for Katherine to get in to the top "bunk." She actually fell pretty hard on her first attempt.

Once they got it all worked out, we were provided with hours of entertainment, as you can see.

Nice, Katherine!

Julie took advantage of having Katherine in such a vulnerable position!

Cute!

This one's my favorite shot of the trip!

Kim was being attacked by smoke in this one!

We had our s'mores and told stories. After all that fun, Nate finally showed up. He was the only guy with 6 girls - Kim, Katherine, Julie, Stacie, Wendy, and myself. Lucky guy!

Oh, wait, we also had some wrestling around as well. This is a pose. The real wrestling shots were less than flattering!

We just hung around for awhile in the morning. It was pretty chilly!

Oh, I guess we can count Gus in the guy category as well! :) He's begging for attention from Nate.

After throwing the frisbee and football around for awhile, we headed down to the lake. Katherine brought her canoe.

This action shot was too cool not to post. She was pretending to jump in the water here.

Some of us just enjoyed the cool water and beautiful weather this way.

Wendy's showing her patriotism.

These girls headed out on a canoe ride. . .

. . . while we continued to relax.

Julie surprised them with a cannonball on their way back in. I love the sports setting on my camera!

This was a perfectly placed splash. She got all 3 pretty good!

Triumphant!

Katherine couldn't let Julie have all the fun so she jumped in for real.

It took them both quite a while to dry off.

These girls were troopers to pose for this one. The sun was so bright!

We threw the frisbee some more, ate lunch, chatted, and played a game of phase 10 before rolling down the hill and heading home. It was a great camp out!

Jump Ropers

I got this video in an email. I thought it was awesome! Here's the info from the email: A Physical Education teacher, Lynn Kelley who founded the Kings Firecrackers13 years ago, said the video of their performance at an Army vs. Navy game in February was posted to the team's Web site in early April, and has ignited national interest.

Moscow, Idaho

This last weekend I had a great time visiting Susannah and Adam up in Idaho. It was the first time I've seen them since we left them in Placerville after the Boise reception this summer.

My visit was doubly fun because Julie joined in on the fun on her way back home from Alaska (she was working there for the summer). Here we are at one of my first tourist stops - the grizzly bear habitat.

They have quite a few bears there - even a few cubs. This little area is just outside of Pullman, Washington, which is just down the road from Moscow. It was cool watching them. I have a video of one of the bears trying to eat some grass through the fence. It's on my phone and I can't figure out how to get it on here, but I'll keep trying.

One of the most AWESOME things we saw is at an animal research facility for Washington State University. They have this mega huge cow! It's hard to tell, but you can see the tops of the backs of those other cows just below the roof of this feeding area. That cow to the left is feet taller!

We stood there shocked as we saw it there. This picture really doesn't do it justice. It was HUGE!

Oh, by the way, the weather there was a far cry from the weather here. This picture was taken Saturday morning on the way to the farmers market. The highs were in the high 30s and low 40s. The lowest I saw while were were there was 16 degrees!!!!!

At the farmer's market, they had a live band playing. They were a great sounding jazz band that we enjoyed for awhile.

They were selling all sorts of great produce. Susannah loves peppers so I had to get this shot of her.

I LOVED the farmer's market. I could have stayed all day! I'm only putting a few of the pictures I took there in this post.

They were fire roasting these peppers right there.

Thanks to Kirsten's post (click HERE to see it), we got on a "Parkour" kick. It kept us entertained.

I loved the Fall leaves there. We took a walk around the arboretum at the U of I campus. It was beautiful.

I had to get in the picture with these beautiful leaves!

Here's a shot of us girls up in one of the cool trees.

We talked Adam into doing some action jumping shots while we threw leaves in the air. It was quite hilarious.

This shot cracked me up - I really couldn't stop laughing. It looks like that leaf is stuck to his face.

This was a cool shot at the arboretum. If you look at the distant hill, you can see a little whirlwind or dust devil. You might need to click on the picture and make it bigger.

There was also a cool big red barn there. Of course we had to get some shots there too!

Here we are looking all contemplative!

We also had a look around the Vandal campus. It was so pretty! I had no idea!

The stained glass windows in this building were amazing.

I loved this tree tunnel that led up to the building.

And here's a shot of the whole thing. It was awesome. It was like a castle in the back too. Thanks Adam and Susannah for such a great trip filled with Rook, Boggle, and a whole of fun! Susannah has some other pictures of the trip on her blog. Check it out HERE!

Best Foot Forward

My mom just sent me a link to this newspaper article about my cousin Matt's son, Nate. His hands are paralyzed and he does everything with his feet. It's really cool and I thought I'd share. There's a video about it to the right as well. Click HERE to read about it!

My Sunday

We were lucky to have General Conference this weekend.

General Conference is held twice a year with 4 general sessions - 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. It is broadcast from Salt Lake City in the conference center which is right next to the temple there. It's always so good!

This was no exception. Everything was wonderful. One of my favorite talks was given by Thomas S. Monson, the President of our church. I'll have to post it if it becomes available.

I watched the first session today on the Internet. I then met up with the Calls and headed down to Katy to my cousin, Eric & his wife Wendy's house for lunch and then the second session of conference. Our cousins Daciana and Dannen were there with their families as well. It was a great time. I always die laughing when the Bushmans get together, especially when Eric and Wendy are there!

When we got back to Humble, my Uncle Darrell had to show me his mishap. He accidentally left his rootbeer in the freezer. He had just meant to put it in to cool it down for a little, but forgot about it, and it EXPLODED!

I had him pose with the exploded can.

Harley

Nate finally got to rent his Harley. He got a fat bob.

He picked it up Friday afternoon and took it back Saturday afternoon. He was kind enough to take several of us on rides. My turn came Saturday morning. We did a cool loop up around Huntsville. It was a lot of fun and great weather. Too bad my camera battery died before I got to take any pictures. These are from my phone!

This giant gun was outside a BBQ place by Coldspring, TX. It cracked me up.

Another Testiment

I did a post a year or so ago called Reflections of Christ. There's a group who has used photography to portray the Savior's life. I think they've done a wonderful job.

This is a print from their first group (I think) of pictures. They've come out with a new group of photos based on the Book of Mormon's account of Christ's visit to the American continent after his resurrection and subsequent visit to his apostles in Jerusalem. Click HERE to see this awesome slide show!

Click HERE to learn more about the Book of Mormon!